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Conf  Pam  12mo  #482 

D^Q7515Q- 


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ADDRESS 

DELIVERED    AT    THE 

GENERAL  MILITARY  HOSPITAL, 

WILSON,    N".     O., 

ON  THE  DAY  APPOINTED  BY  THE 

PRESIDENT 

AS   A    DAY   OF 

FASTING,  HUMILIATION  AND  PRAYER, 


BY 

ID^TJIES^r   L=iLCT5    3D.  ID. 

CHAPLAIN    OF   THE    POST. 


fayetteville: 

PRINTED  BY  EDWARD  J    HALE  &  SONS. 

1863. 


GENERAL  MILITARY  HOSPITAL, 

Wilson,  N.  C,  March  27ih,  1863. 
Rev.  Drury  Lacy,  D.  D.: 
Dear  Sir: 

The  inmates  of  the  Hospital  and  citizens  of 
the  surrounding  community,  who  attended  Divine  Service  here  to-day, 
desire  me  to  express  their  appreciation  of  the  well-timed,  able  and  elo- 
quent Address  delivered  by  you  as  our  Chaplain  on  the  occasion. 

In  the  general  belief  that  its  circulation  will  exert  a  beneficial  influ- 
ence in  these  stormy  times,  the  pleasant  task  devolves  upon  me  of  soli- 
citing in  their  name  that  you  will  place  in  my  hands  a  copy  for  publi- 
cation. 

Permit  me  to  add  my  own  personal  solicitations  that  you  will  comply 
with  the  request. 

Veryrespectfully, 

Your  ob't  servant, 

S.  S.  SATCHWELL, 
Surgeon  C.  S.  A.,  in  charge. 


GENERAL  MILITARY  HOSPITAL, 

Wilson,  28th  March  1863. 


Dear  Doctor: 


Your  noie  of  yesterday,  requesting  in  behalf  of  "the 
inmates  of  the  Hospital  and  citizens  of  the  surrounding  community, 
who  attended  Divine  Service,"  the  Address  delivered  by  me,  was  re- 
ceived (hi  <  morning. 

I  feel  truly  grateful  for  your  announcement  that  "it  is  Vie  general 
belief  thai  its  circulation  will  exert  a  beneficinl  influence,"  &c,  and 
yielding  my  judgment,  to  that  of  the  applicants,  will  place  a  copy  in 
your  hands  for  publication. 

I  thank  you,  my  dear  Doctor,  for  your  own  favorable  opinion  of  this 
humble  effort;  and  believe  me  to  be,  very  respectfully, 
Your  sincere  friend,  &c, 

DRURY  LACY,  Chap., 

Post  at  Wilsor. 
For  Dr.  S.  S.  Satchwell, 

Surgeon  in  charge. 


J~ 


ORDER  OF  EXERCISES 


I.  INVOCATION. 
II.   HYMNS  FOR  THE  CAMP.— 40th,  C.  M. 

1.  Lord,  vvhile  for  all  mankind  we  pray. 

Of  every  clime  and  coast, 
0,  hear  us  for  our  native  land — 
The  land  we  love  the  most. 

2.  0,  guard  our  shores  from  every  foe, 

With  peace  our  borders  bless, 
With  prosperous  time?  our  cities  crown, 
Our  fields  with  plenteousness. 

3.  Unite  U9  in  the  sacred  love 

Of  knowledge,  truth  and  Thee; 
And  let  our  hills  and  valleys  shout 
The  songs  of  liberty. 

4.  Lord  of  the  nations,  thus  to  Thee 

Our  country  we  commend; 
Be  Thou  her  refuge  and  her  trust, 
Her  everlasting  f'r'h-mJ. 

III.   PRAYER. 

IV.   SCRIPTURE  READ.— Joel,  ch.  ii.,  1-5—32  vs. 

V.   PROCLAMATION  OF  PRESIDENT  READ. 

VI.  ADDRESS. 

In  compliance  with  the  well-timed  and  most  admirable  Pro- 
clamation of  our  President,  do  we  this  day  tread  the  courts  of 
the  Most  High.  We  come  to  humble  ourselves  under  His 
mighty  hand;  to  afflict  our  souls  for  the  evils  we  have  done  in 
His  sight;  to  pour  out  the  language  of  penitence  and  contri- 
tion before  His  throne  of  grace;  to  deprecate  His  wrath  and 
to  implore  His  mercy. 

But  where,  some  may  ask,  where  is  the  propriety  or  neces- 
sity of  thus  humbling  ourselves  before  God  with  fasting  and 
prayer?  I  answer,  that  Jehovah's  controversy  with  our  guilty 
land  is  not  yet  removed.     Are  there  satisfying  evidences  that 


P42p,03 


4 
"His  anger  is  turned  away,  and  that  He  is  pacified  towards  us  jot 
all  that  ue  have  dene  and  btcn"?  Have  our  people,  "breaking 
off  their  sins  by  repentance,  returned  unto  Him  against  whom  they 
have  sinned'''?  From  His  judgments,  which  are  yet  abroad  over 
the  land,  do  they  appear  to  have  learned  righteousness?  Would 
to  God  that  facts  could  warrant  a  prompt  and  exultant  affirm- 
ative! But  no!  we  are  still  at  war  with  our  enemy;  the  end 
has  not  yet  come;  the  horrors  of  this  cruel  war  still  exist;  the 
clash  of  arms  is  still  resounding  over  the  broad  extent  of  our 
country;  the  fresh  graves  of  those  who  have  fallen  in  the  dead- 
ly strife,  or  by  slow,  lingering  disease,  are  strewed  in  every 
direction;  our  hospitals  are  yet  crowded  with  the  sick  and 
wounded;  wailing  and  lamentation  still  rise  from  a#thousand 
bleeding  hearts  and  desolated  homes.  No!  Jehovah's  con- 
troversy with  us  has  not  yet  ceased.  We  are  still  "a  sinful 
nation,  a,  people  laden  with  iniquity,  a  seed  of  evil-doers,  we  have 
provoked  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  to  anger,'"  and  it  will  be  of  the 
Lord's  mercies  if  we  are  not  yet  humbled  by  a  cruel  and  mer- 
ciless foe — by  a  people  that  we  in  our  hearts  despise. 

How  numerous  our  sins  as  a  people  are,  how  black  their 
ingratitude,  how  peculiar  their  aggravations,  it  is  not  my  in- 
tention fully  to  state.  This  would  lead  me  over  ground  which 
would  afford  me  no  pleasure  to  traverse,  and  one  which,  should 
there  be  a  necessity,  would  require  us  to  take  a  sad  and  sor- 
rowful review  of  the  past.  That  we  have  merited  these  judg- 
ments which  have  fallen  upon  us,  and  by  which  the  Eternal 
scourges  a  sinful  and  sHff-necked  people,  none  but  a  daring 
atheism  or  stupid  ignorance  can  deny.  Nor  is  it  my  purpose 
to  relate  the  causes  of  the  horrid  war  in  which  we  are  engaged: 
they  are  known  to  you  as  well  as  they  are  to  me.  It  is  suffi- 
cient to  say,  that  there  are  causes  enough  in  the  injuries  and 
insults  heaped  upon  us  by  our  enemi  s  for  the  last  forty  years 
— injuries  and  insults  greater  by  far  than  those  which  caused 
our  fathers  to  throw  oil' the  government  of  Great  Britain.  But 
the  symptoms  of  its  approach,  though  they  had  been  for  long 
years  the  source  of  deep  anxiety  to  many,  when  they  drew 
near,  startled  the  most  thoughtless.  Our  hearts  throbbed  with . 
painful  apprehensions;  thousands  of  "God's  people,  in  their  fam- 
ilies apart,  and  in  their  closets  apart,"  for  months  were  prostrate 


5 
before  His  throne  of  merry,  to  deprecate  those  evils  of  which 
the  bare  apprehension  filled  them  with  alarm.     But  notwith- 
standing their  prayers  and    taws,  the   gathering  darkness  was 
permitted  to  concentrate  and  pour  down  its  tempest  of  wrath. 

It  is  a  very  remarkable  as  well  as  mysterious  arrangement 
in  the  government  of  God,  by  which  He  makes  one  sin  the 
corrective  and  punishment  of  a*rtfother.  When  nation  rises  up 
against  nation,  and  one  people  against  another — when  dissen- 
sions grow  into  animosities,  and  animosities  break  out  into 
open  and  destructive  hostility — let  us  not  suppose  that  such 
deplorable  events  proceed  merely  from  the  jarring  interests 
and  the  jarring  passions  of  men.  Ambition  of  power,  the  fas- 
cinations-of  wealth  and  grandeur,  acquisition  of  territory,  jeal- 
ousy of  right  and  of  interest,  national  honor  or  the  lust  of  fame, 
often  set  the  world  on  fire  and  swell  the  huge  catalogue  of  hu- 
man miseries.  "Wars  and  fightings  come  from  our  lusts."  But 
in  these  disasters  a  higher  agency  is  concerned.  God,  "who 
sitteth  upon  the  floods" — God,  "whose  kingdom  ruleth  over  all" — 
God,  who  causeth  even  "the  wrath  of  man  to  pake  him" — marks 
out  the  path  of  the  tyrant,  selects  the  objects  of  his  prowess, 
and  fixes  the  bounds  of  his  ravages.  His  design  may  be  evil, 
his  aggressions  unprovoked,  and  from  him,  unmerited  by  those 
against  whom  they  are  directed,  every  step  of  his  course  may 
be  scored  with  crimes.  And  yet  God,  unimpeachably  right- 
eous, brings  light  out  of  this  darkness,  order  out  of  this  confu- 
sion, by  such  evil  instruments  accomplishes  wise,  good  and 
holy  ends,  and  when  He  has  accomplished  them,  He  visits  the 
iniquities  of  the  instruments  themselves  and  breaks  them  to 
pieces  with  his  rod  of  iron.  This  truth  is  set  forth  in  clear 
light  and  in  strong  colors  by  the  Prophet  Isaiah,  in  chap,  x, 
5 — 19  verses. 

This  is  one  of  those  "terrible  things  in  righteousness"  by  which, 
"when  He  comet h  forth  out  of  His  place,  God  punishes  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth."  Thus,  men  become  to  each  other  the  angels  of  His 
wrath — the  executioners  of  His  vengeance;  and  thus,  He  dele- 
gates one  wicked  people  as  ministers  of  His  quarrel  to  ano- 
ther, and  sends  them  to  execute  His  threatenings  upon  their 
brethren  in  transgression.  The  sword  never  comes  to  devour 
but  when  He  appoints  it;  for  every  fatal  thrust  it  has  His  high 


P42B93 


6 

commission,  and  with  the  blood  which  rushes  through  the  por- 
tals of  death  does  He  write  the  crimson  history  of  His  wrath' 

Brethren!  need  I  remind  you  that  this  dreadful  plague  is 
now  upon  us?  Already  have  we  suffered  those  horrors  of  war 
which  our  frenzied  imaginations  were  not  able  to  pourtray, — 
such  horrors  as  those  of  which  our  fathers  told  us  in  our  child- 
hood, that  took  place  in  their  day — in  that  day  of  desperate 
struggle  for  life  and  liberty,  the  deeds  of  which  will  ever  live 
in  our  memories.  Already  have  we  heard  the  burst  of  hostile 
thunder — the  shouts  and  wailings  of  maddening  strife;  already 
have  we  seen  our  fair  land  invaded  by  the  ruthless  foe,  whole 
tracts  of  country  desolated  and  turned  into  a  howling  waste, 
many  of  our  cities  captured  and  placed  under  martial  law  with 
their  inhabitants  in  a  condition  worse  than  Egyptian  bondage, 
thousands  of  families  fugitives  from  their  burning  dwellings, 
our  slaves  carried  off  by  fraud  or  violence,  and,  worse  than 
all,  the  very  temples  of  the  living  God  desecrated  by  the  out- 
rages and  obscenities  of  an  impious  soldiery — resounding  with 
their  imprecations,  instead  of  vocal  with  the  Redeemer's  praises. 

The  complicated  evils  which  attend  war,  and  such  a  war  as 
this,  and  especially  with  such  a  malignant  foe,  should  awaken 
in  every  bosom  humble  and  earnest  prayer  to  God,  that  these 
evils  may  be  averted,  and  these  "calamities  may  be  speedily  over- 
past." These  evils,  both  political  and  moral,  it  would  require 
a  volume  fully  to  enumerate  and  display.  But  the  time  would 
fail  me  to  unfold  them  here.  I  might  call  your  attention  to 
its  pernicious  influence  on  the  population  of  the  country,  not 
only  by  increasing  the  difficulty  of  comfortable  subsistence, 
but  by  the  shocking  waste  it  occasions  of  human  life.  I  might 
remind  you,  (for  you  would  not  demand  proof,)  that  it  breaks 
up  the  happiest  arrangements  of  society;  that  it  arrests  the 
progress  of  the  arts;  that  it  retards  and  ruins  the  improvements 
of  science;  that  it  weakens  the  efforts  of  agricultural  pursuits 
and  destroys  commercial  interests;  that  it  creates  perplexing 
revolutions  in  monetary  transactions  and  in  the  state  of  pro- 
perty; that  it  impedes,  if  it  does  not  frustrate,  the  regular  ad- 
ministration of  civil  and  criminal  jurisprudence;  that  it  fre- 
quently subjects  many  of  the  citizens  to  the  stern  jurisdiction 
and  summary  proceedings  of  martial  law;  that,  whilst  it  puts  a 


7 
stop  to  national  improvement,  it  dries  up  the  ordinary  streams 
of  national  resource;  that  it  oppresses  the  community  with 
odious  but  necessary  exactions  and  impressments,  in  order  to 
maintain  their  military  establishments  and  give  energy  to  their 
hostile  operations;  and  that  it  generally  entails  upon  them  a 
burden  of  debt  which  requires  the  wisdom  and  exertion  of  gen- 
erations to  throw  off. 

The  moral  evils  which  spring  from  war  are  neither  fewer 
nor  less  baneful  than  the  political.  As  it  nurtures  all  the 
fierce  and  violent  passion*,  it  wrests  from  society  the  benefit 
of  many  advances  in  civilization,  and  drives  it,  in  a  retrograde 
motion,  back  towards  barbarism.  By  interrupting  the  quiet 
pursuit  of  enlarged  and  generous  education,  it  keeps  the  young 
in  ignorance,  and  withholds  from  them  the  means  of  respecta- 
bility and  usefulness.  By  hindering  the  general  and  uniform 
attendance  on  the  social  worship  of  God,  it  suspends  the  be- 
nign influence  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  relaxes  the  bonds  of 
religious  duty,  deadens  the  sensibilities  of  conscience,  and  tends 
to  subvert  the  steady  dominion  of  moral  principle.  Standing 
armies,  moreover,  are  seminaries  of  vice.  So  they  always  have 
been;  so,  we  suppose,  they  always  will  be.  There  are  some 
examples,  glorious  examples,  of  men  who  hold  fast  their  in- 
tegrity even  here.  But  in  general,  the  predominance  of  ini- 
quity is  so  great,  that  the  virtue  of  most  is  quickly  contami- 
nated and  blended  with  the  common  mass  of  corruption.  Here 
the  profligate  and  profane  tutor  each  other  in  the  arts  of  im- 
piety and  debauchery.  The  want  of  pure  example  lessens  its 
efficacy,  while  freedom  from  pious  restraint  gives  the  rein  to 
the  more  worthless  propensities  of  the  heart.  Wickedness 
generates  infidelity,  and  infidelity  emboldens  wickedness. 
Hence,  as  from  a  root,  unbelief  in  speculation  and  immorality 
in  practice  are  propagated  in  every  direction,  and  scatter  their 
poison  to  a  prodigious  extent.  Besides  all  this,  with  men  who 
are  accustomed  to  the  work  of  death,  the  life  of  man  loses  its 
value,  and  they  can  behold  without  emotion  thousands  of  their 
fellow-beings  mowed  down  on  the  field  of  carnage,  or  daily 
dropping  into  the  grave  by  the  power  of  disease.  To  add  no 
more,  an  army  is  almost  as  dangerous  when  disbanded  as  it  is 
expensive  and  troublesome  when  organized.     Men  who  lounge 


in  idleness  when  not  called  to  the  activity  of  military  duty — 
who  are  provided  for  without  a  thought  of  their  own — who 
have  acquired  habits  of  plunder  as  wrell  as  of  sloth — can  with 
difficulty  apply  to  laborious  occupations.  These  render  us  un- 
safe in  the  midst  of  prosperity;  these  furnish  the  street  with 
thieves,  the  highway  with  robbers,  and  the  jail  with  crimi- 
nals. And  last,  though  not  least,  such  a  war  generates  a  host 
of  speculators  and  extortioners — men  that  spring  up  as  from 
the  bottomless  pit,  and  prowl  through  the  land  in  every  cor- 
ner of  it,  taking  advantage  of  the  ignorance  and  necessities  of 
the  people,  and,  like  a  flock  of  filthy  harpies,  suck  and  fatten 
on  the  very  life-blood  of  helpless  widowhood  and  weeping  or- 
phanage. The  history  of  this  war  will  be  written,  and  when 
it  is  done,  there  will  be  found  some  dark  spots  on  its  records, 
which  will  form  a  glaring  contrast  with  the  glorious  sacrifices 
endured  and  the  many  brilliant  achievements  of  our  arms  won. 
But  the  foulest,  darkest,  blackest  spot  that  will  stain  the  page 
of  the  historian,  will  be  the  record  of  the  heartless  villanies  of 
extortioners.  "God  visits  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the 
children  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate  Him;" 
and  when,  in  coming  years,  it  shall  be  asked  of  some  young 
man  of  wealth,  'Whose  son  is  he?'  and  the  answer,  'The  son  of 
a  man  who,  in  the  second  war  of  our  independence,  sold  his 
country  for  gold';  and,  as  the  finger  of  scorn  is  pointed  at  him, 
he  will  curse  the  name  of  his  father;  he  will  curse  his  own 
name,  and  curse  the  day  that  he  was  born.  Such  are  some 
few  of  the  evils  common  to  war,  and  for  a  speedy  deliverance 
from  such  horrors  into  which  we  are  plunged,  and  that  too 
with  such  a  foe,  we  cannot  too  earnestly  cry  to  God  this  day. 
Our  President  has  likewise  called  us  to  render  God  our 
thanks  for  His  great  mercies  and  His  wonderful  deliverances, 
as  well  as  to  humble  ourselves  before  Him.  Let  us  do  this  in 
a  becoming  manner.  Remember,  then,  that  there  is  a  religion 
of  Society,  as  such, — a  tribute  of  reverence  and  praise  which 
it  owes  to  the  living  God.  Formed  under  His  auspices  and 
nurtured  by  His  care — preserved  by  His  power  and  replenished 
by  His  bounty — He  requires  from  it,  on  the  accounts,  social 
worship  and  the  social  vow.  The  honor  of  His  sovereign  rule 
He  cannot  relinquish,  and  the  confession  of  it  we  may  not  with- 


9 
hold.  It  is  true,  there  are  subordinate  agents  who  have  acted 
their  part  in  the  transactions  of  this  war.  But  in  however 
conspicuous  and  honorable  a  manner  these  civil  and  military 
virtues,  which  are  at  once  the  duty  and  glory  of  their  official 
stations,  have  been  displayed  in  the  critical  circumstances  in 
which  they  have  been  thrown;  however  firmly  and  wisely  and 
bravely  they  may  have  acted;  however  much  they  may  have 
deserved  of  their  country,  still  their  exertions  would  have  been 
utterly  fruitless  without  the  countenance  "of  Him  who  is  the 
Governor  among  the  7iations"  And  here  let  me  say,  that  no  per- 
sons within  the  bounds  of  the  whole  Confederacy  are  more 
prompt  and  more  willing  to  acknowledge  all  this  than  the  dis- 
tinguished agents  themselves.  As  proof  of  this  statement, 
look  at  the  many  calls  made  by  our  Chief  Magistrate  on  the 
good  people  of  the  country  to  assemble  for  thanksgiving  and 
praise  when  God  has  crowned  our  efforts  with  success,  or  for 
humiliation  and  prayer  when  we  have  met  with  reverses  and 
disasters.  Look  at  the  admirable  series  of  resolutions  present- 
ed by  Mr.  Sec'y  Memminger,  and  unanimously  passed  by  Con- 
gress, after  the  first  battle  of  Manassas  in  July  '61.  You  have 
never  read  a  dispatch  to  the  Government  from  Gen.  Lee  that 
he  did  not,  in  a  most  marked  manner,  ascribe  the  success  of 
our  arms  to  the  kindly  interposition  of  the  Almighty;  nor  from 
Gen.  Beauregard  in  which  the  same  acknowledgment  is  not 
made.  Gen.  D.  H.  Hill,  in  the  most  emphatic  manner,  com- 
menced it  at  Bethel,  in  a  dispatch  to  Gov.  Ellis,  of  such  artless 
simplicity  and  pathos,  that  when  read  before  the  Convention, 
filled  all  eyes  with  tears  and  all  hearts  with  gratitude  to  God. 
Gen.  Kirby  Smith,  in  his  brilliant  victory  at  Richmond,  Ky., 
ordered  all  his  troops  to  assemble  the  next  day  (Sunday)  to 
render  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  the  signal  victory  that  had 
crowned  their  arms.  Whilst  Gen.  Jackson,  in  his  own  pecu- 
liarly short  and  striking  telegrams,  ever  begins:  "By  the-bless- 
ing  of  God  on  our  arms,  we  have  again  defeated  the  enemy." 
Whilst,  then,  we  mourn  over  the  desolations  of  this  horrid 
war,  and  humble  ourselves  that  God  inflicts  it  upon  us,  let  us 
thank  Him  this  day  that  He  has  given  us  such  officers, — men 
who  fear  God  and  fear  nothing  else;  men  who  worship  God  on 
their  bended  knees  morning  and  night,  and  pray  to  God  audi- 


10 
bly  and  visibly  while  the  battle  rages,  and  who  ascribe  all  the 
praise  of  their  success  to  the  same  glorious  God  whose  favor 
they  had  so  earnestly  sought.  But  let  us  not  rest  in  these 
second  causes,  nor  limit  our  praises  to  these  human  instru- 
ments. Let  us  not  disregard  them,  but  look  beyond  them. 
Let  us  make  our  boast  in  God,  who  in  the  day  of  trouble  cov- 
ered us  with  the  shield  of  His  Omnipotence.  "If  it  had  not 
been  the  Lord  who  was  on  our  side"  now  may  our  people  say, 
"if  it  had  not  been  the  Lord  who  was  on  our  side  when  our  enemy 
rose  up  against  us,  then  they  had  swallowed-  us  tip  quick,  when  their 
wrath  was  kindled,  against  us:  then  the  waters  had  overwhelmed  us, 
then  the  proud  waves  had  gone  over  our  soul.  Blessed  be  the  Lord 
who  hath  not  given  us  as  a  prey  to  their  teeth.  Our  soul  is  escaped 
as  a  bird  out  of  the  snare  of  the  fowler,  the  snare  is  broken  and  we 
are  escaped."  Let  our  experience  of  His  repeated  and  unmerit- 
ed favors  during  the  progress  of  this  horrid  war  encourage  us 
to  put  our  unlimited  trust  in  Him  till  it  closes — aye,  in  all 
time  to  come. 

There  are  other  aspects  of  this  subject  which  I  would  be 
glad  to  present,  if  the  time  would  permit.  Let  the  following 
suffice  for  the  present: 

I  pretend  to  be  no  politician,  much  less  a  statesman.  I  lay 
claim  to  no  prophetic  visions  of  the  future,  but  still,  in  my 
humble  sphere,  cannot  but  indulge,  as  no  doubt  others  do,  in 
anticipations  of  what  is  to  come.  I  have  never  yet  had  any 
misgivings  as  to  the  ultimate  result  of  this  terrible  conflict, — 
dark  as  may  be  the  way  through  which  we  shall  be  called  to 
pass — dreadful  as  may  be  the  sufferings  which  we  may  yet 
endure.  I  have  never  yet  had  any  serious  doubt  of  a  glorious 
issue;  of  our  independence  as  a  sovereign  people,  and  of  our 
people  "sitting  yet  under  their  own  vine  and  fig-tree."  I  honestly 
believe  we  are  in  God's  good  time  to  be  elevated  to  a  dignified 
rank  among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  whether  foreign  govern- 
ments recognize  us  in  six  months  or  six  years,  or  never  recog- 
nize us  at  all.  We  will  win  a  place  among  the  family  of  na- 
tions, by  God's  blessing  on  the  skill  of  our  Generals  and  the 
valor  of  our  troops.  A  people  determined  to  be  free  can  never 
be  enslaved. 

But  it  is  sometimes  objected  by  the  timid  and  incredulous? 


11 

that  our  country  is  too  poor,  and  our  armies  too  small  and  lil 
provided  to  cope  with  so  mighty  a  foe  and  to  drive  him  back. 
Has  not  Lincoln  already  an  army  of  600,000  men  in  the  field, 
and  is  he  not  now  raising  3,000,000  of  men  more?  How  then- 
is  this  little  handful  of  men,  badly  fed,  badly  clothed,  and  bad- 
ly equipped,  to  meet  such  a  formidable  host?  Why  has  this 
little  band  a  fatigue-duty  laid  upon  it  so  beyond  its  power* 
and  its  prowess?  What  prospect  and  what  hope  is  there  of 
success?  To  all  this  I  promptly  answer:  We  have  army  enough, 
if  we  have  only  patriotism  and  prayer  enough.  God's  plan  of 
giving  success  to  nations  is  not  Buonaparte's  plan,  that  of  num- 
bers. All  history  will  prove  that  our  power  is  not  to  be  com- 
puted by  our  numbers.  With  God's  blessing,  all  our  conflicts 
are  secured  by  the  same  promise  that  secures  victory  to  the 
Church — "One  shall  chase  a  thousand  and  two  put  ten  thousand  to 
flighty  Hence  our  song  has  ever  been  and  shall  yet  be  in  the 
midst  of  battle:  "The  Lord  of  hosts  is  with  us,  the  mighty  God 
of  Jacob  is  our  refuge." 

What,  then,  if  Lincoln  does  muster  in  the  field  his  3,000,000 
of  men?  Like  those  before  them,  they  will  be  driven  as  chaff 
before  the  wind.  It  is  not  in  the  power  of  any  numbers  he 
can  bring  against  us  to  succeed.  "Witness  the  example  of 
Persia  when  she  poured  her  3,000,000  on  Greece."  What  be- 
came of  them  at  Thermopylae  and  on  the  Hellespont,  and  other 
places  made  famous  by  song?  They  melted  away  like  snow 
under  a  summer's  sun.  "Look  at  England,  when  for  300  years 
she  attempted  to  subdue  Scotland  and  annex  it  to  her  Govern- 
ment." She  never  would  have  succeeded  to  this  day  had  she 
not  at  last  succeeded  only  by  disgracing  herself  in  receiving  a 
king  from  her  enemy,  when  James  VI  of  Scotland  became 
James  I  of  England.  "Look  at  Holland,  glorious  little  Hol- 
land, against  the  all  powerful  Spain."  With  a  low,  flat  coun- 
try, half  marsh  and  water;  every  city  of  importance  sacked  or 
burnt;  her  principal  forts  taken  and  held  by  the  enemy;  her 
dykes  to  keep  out  the  sea  broken  to  destroy  her  produce;  her 
old  men,  women  and  children  fugitives  from  their  homes,  or 
those  who  remained  huddled  together  in  a  few  points  of  safety; 
her  armies  living  for  years  on  potatoes  or  the  flesh  of  horses; — 
amidst  all  these  privations  and  distresses  and  horrors  of  a  cruel 


12 
war,  her  spirit  was  still  unbroken,  her  courage  undaunted,  and 
after  a  resistance  of  many  long  years,  achieved  her  indepen- 
dence, and  took  her  place  among  the  family  of  nations.  Let 
us  go  for  proof  to  sacred  history.  Then  look  at  Gideon's  lit- 
tle army  of  30,000  men,  marshalled  on  the  field  of  conflict 
against  the  countless  hosts  of  the  Midianites.  When  the  cap- 
tain of  the  Lord's  host  reviewed  them,  He  said  that  "they  were 
too  many.'"  When  He  had  reduced  them  down  to  300,  (by  a 
singular  process  of  lapping  water  from  the  brook,)  and  they 
were  brought  in  line  of  battle  against  the  army  of  Midian,  then 
He  permitted  them  to  make  the  onset,  and  they  did  it;  and  with 
the  battle-cry,  "The  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon"  the  vic- 
tory was  easy.     Take  another  case: 

When  Elisha  was  pent  up  in  Jotham,  and  the  hosts  of  Syria 
spread  over  all  the  hills,  and  covered  with  their  horses  and 
chariots  the  whole  territory,  and  his  body-servant,  in  alarm, 
cried  out,  "Alas!  master,  and  what  shall  we  do?"  the  faith  of  the 
prophet  could  easily  climb  the  hills  and  see  them  all  glaring 
and  glittering  with  the  horses  of  fire  and  chariots  of  fire,  and 
could  calmly  reply,  "More  are  they  who  are  for  us  than  they  ivho 
are  against  us."  And  the  prophet  was  as  safe  as  if  Heaven's 
Chieftain  had  sent  His  whole  life-guard  to  protect  the  man  of 
•God.  Well  might  lie  sing,  as  he  led  the  blinded  Syrian  into 
Samaria,  "The  chariots  of  God  are  30,000,  even  thousands  of  an- 
gels." And  well  might  he  add  by  way  of  chorus,  "The  Lord 
is  among  them.  The  mighty  God  of  Jacob  is  their  leader."  No, 
my  hearers,  no.  Let  us  not  be  moved  by  the  display  of  num- 
bers against  us.  "What  though  we  be  but  6,000,000,  and 
our  enemy  20,  or  40,  or  60,000,000,  we  will  plant  ourselves 
against  the  rock  of  historic  truth  and  say,  "Come  one,  come 
all!"  We  must  succeed,  and,  by  God's  blessing  on  our  efforts, 
we  will  succeed.  We  will  all  die  rather  than  bend  the  sup- 
pliant knee  or  kiss  the  hand  of  the  tyrant.  Our  cause  is  found- 
ed upon  the  immutable  laws  of  God,  and  is  so  righteous  that 
we  can  carry  it  to  Him,  and  leave  it  under  the  shadow  of  His 
throne. 

Now,  in  the  goodly  heritage  which  "the  Governor  of  na- 
tions" will  yet  secure  to  us,  there  will  exist  a  larger  proportion 
of  all  the  elements  of  greatness  in  the  true  sense  of  the  term — 


13 
of  freedom  and  happiness — than  has  ever  yet   fallen  to  the  lot 
of  any  other  people,     The  old  leaven  of  radicalism,  in  all  its 
wide-spread  and  ever  restless  forms,  will  have  heen  purged 
out,  and  new  elements  of  strength  and   beauty  and  grandeur 
will  take  its  place.     We  are  row  in  the  gristle  ot  our  youth, 
and   have  already  been   proving  how  tough  and   elastic  it  is, 
and  what  we  may  bejwhen   it  becomes  hardened  by  a  little 
use  and  age.     The  fact  is,  we  have  become,  in  God's  provi- 
dence, the  great   inheritors  of  human  freedom.     The  North 
have  lost  all  pretensions  to  true  freedom  and  to  a  well  regu- 
lated liberty.     They  want  the  necessary  conservative  element, 
and  for  the  want  of  it  they  have  been  driving  on,  under  the 
power  of  a  mad  mobocracy,  until  they  have  plunged  blindfold 
into  all  the   horrors  of  a   military  despotism.     What  the  end 
will  be  I  do  not  pretend  to  know,  and  what  is  more,  I  do  not 
care.     But  on  our  side — we  tell  it  thankfully,  we  tell  it  firm- 
ly— we  are  the  inheritors  of  human  freedom,  and  we  intend  to 
transmit  the  sacred  treasure  to   our  children's  children,  untar- 
nished by  a  single  blot,  undiminished  by  a  single  particle!  We 
love  our  fathers'  memory;  we  cherish  the   deeds  of  our  great 
ancestors;  we  know  this  day  of  God's  terrible  visitation  upon 
us,  but  we  look  to  Him  for  His  mighty  interposition,  and  by 
His  grace  we  mean  to  be  faithful  to  our  lot,  just  to  the  glori- 
ous past,  true  to  the  still  more  glorious  future!     Milton,  one 
of  the  most  gifted  of  all  English  poets,  in  his  "Treatise  on  the 
Liberty  of  unlicensed   speech,"  full  of  the  greatness   of  his 
theme,  has  with  unsurpassed  beauty  drawn  the  picture  of  a 
commonwealth,  which  with  no  great   changes  we  may  apply 
to  our  young  Confederacy.     "J^ethinks  I  see,"  says  he,  "a  no- 
ble and  puissant  nation  rousing  itself  like  a  strong  man  after 
sleep,  and  shaking  his   invincible  locks;   methinks  I  see  her  as 
an  eagle,  nursing  her   mighty  youth,  and  kindling  her  undaz- 
zled  eyes  at  the  full  mid-day  beam,  purging  and  unsealing  her 
long  abused  sight  at  the   fountain  itself  of  heavely  radiance, 
while  the  whole   noise  of  timorous  and   flocking  birds,  with 
those  also  that  love  the  twilight,  flutter  about  in  their  envious 
gabble,  amazed    at  what   she   means."     How  can  I   add   any 
thing  to  this   gem   of  thought?     But,  my  hearers,  pardon  me 
for   a   moment.     I   pray  you,  anticipate  with    me   the  future. 


14 
Contemplate  this  Confederacy  as  filled  with  happy  citizens — 
educated,  virtuous,  manly,  high-minded  freemen;  all  living  un- 
der equal  laws,  all  enjoying  perfect  liberty  of  conscience,  all 
happy  and  ministering  to  each  other's  happiness.  Think  with 
what  power  this  Confederacy  will  be  invested — what  glory 
will  surround  her.  The  fairest  forms  that  ever  presented  them- 
selves to  the  eye  of  the  poet  in  the  hour  of  highest  inspiration, 
and  when  the  most  enrapturing  visions  broke  upon  his  imagi- 
nation, do  not  exceed  in  grace  and  beauty  and  loveliness  those 
which  our  country  may  assume  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  truly 
virtuous  and  well  regulated  liberty.  Where  now,  you  see  at 
the  North  the  poor,  abject,  crawling  flatterer,  the  pander  to  a 
great  man's  lusts,  the  minion  of  power,  here  at  the  South  you 
shall  see  the  freeman  lifting  his  manly  front,  and  showing  an 
eye  beaming  with  intelligence  and  a  countenance  conscious  of 
inward  dignity.     It  will  be  a  nation  of  freemen! 

But  now  hear  me.  If  our  privileges,  social,  civil,  religious 
and  political — secured  under  "the  shadow  of  the  Almighty" — 
have  hitherto  repelled  the  weapons  of  our  cruel  assailants,  and 
have  received  the  strongest  confirmation  in  the  numerous  and 
brilliant  victories  achieved  by  our  gallant  army  on  many  a 
hard-fought  field,  and  opening  before  us  so  glorious  a  future, — 
let  us  beware  of  dealing  foolishly,  and  vaunting  away  our  mer- 
cies. A  most  proper  and  becoming  sentiment  which  the  ser- 
vices of  this  day  should  impress  upon  us,  and  which  we  should 
carefully  cherish,  is,  to  keep  at  a.  cautious  distance  from  arrogance 
and  pride.  To  communities,  not  less  than  to  individuals,  inso- 
lence is  the  forerunner  of  shame.  "Pride"  saith  the  wise  man, 
"goeth  before  destruction,  and  a.  haughty  spirit  before  a  fall"  If 
God  has  yet  a  controversy  wTith  us,  (if  he  had  not  this  dreadful 
war  would  not  be  upon  us,)  he  can  yet  chastise  and  humble 
us  by  a  rod,  that  we  in  our  hearts  despise.  He,  who  has  all 
power  and  wisdom,  "may  yet  provoke  us  to  jealousy  by  them  that 
are  no  people,  and  by  a  foolish  nation  he  may  anger  us."  Interest 
combines  with  the  injunction  of  inspired  prudence:  "Lift  not 
up  your  horn  on  high;  speak  not  with  a  stiff  neck,  for  promotion 
cometh  neither  from  the  cast,  nor  west,  nor  south;  but  God  is  the 
Judge,  lie  putteth  down  one  and  settcth  up  another."  The  proud, 
the  vain,  the  boastful,  He  will  teach  to  bend  before  his  author- 


15 

ity,  by  the  sad  experience  of  His  displeasure.  Without  His 
direction,  the  sagacity  of  the  profoundest  statesman  is  but  an- 
other name  for  stupid  infatuation.  "He  turneth  wise  men  back- 
ward, and  maketh  their  knowledge  foolish."  Without  Him,  the 
most  intrepid  commanders  "bow  down  under  the  prisoners,  and/all 
under  the  slain."  Abandoned  by  Him,  the  most  stable  fabrics 
of  earthly  contrivance  totter  to  their  bases,  moulder  into  dust, 
and  become  the  sport  of  every  wanton  breeze.  Let  us  not 
flatter  ourselves,  that  however  others  suffer,  we  may  safely 
walk  in  the  imagination  of  our  hearts.  We  have  no  charter 
of  immunity  in  sin.  Without  discrimination,  "the  haughty  shall 
be  humbled  and  the  forward  cut  off"  "for  the  mouth  of  the  Lord 
hath  spoken  it."     Amen! 

VII.   PRAYER. 

VIII.   HYMNS  FOR  THE  CAMP.— 39th,  L.  M. 

1.  With  all  the  bonstei  pomp  of  wir, 

In  vaii.  we  dare  the  ho«tiltf  field: 
Iq  vain,  unless  the  Lord  be  there; 

Thine  arm  alone  our  land  can  shield. 

2.  Our  arms  bU^ceed,  our  ocudoUs  guile, 

Let  Thy  right  ha  i  1  our  cu-^e  ma  n  ain, 
Till  war's  destructive  rage  subside, 
An<l  peace  re^u  ne  «  er  g'  ntle  reign. 

IX.    BENEDICTION. 


Hollinger  Corp. 
pH  8.5 


